How does Hill define reality TV?
In the article, The Reality Genre, Hill (2005) wrote a detailed analysis of the reality TV. The style of reality TV has changed over the past decade. He said that in the early stages of reality TV it treated more about documantary genre and some political situation as it appeared in the reality TV that we have already seen in the class, but now the range of genre of reality TV is various. Thus the author classified it into several parts; television industry, scholars and audiences perspectives.
Television industry
Hill (2005) believed that " the television industry is a good place to chart the changing genre of reality TV." because "the reality genre is made of a number of distinctive and historically based television genres, such as lifestyle, or documentary.". The people who were involved in the television industry said that reality TV has strong market value and also they called reality TV as factual entertainment, or popular factual.
Scholars
The TV scholar, Steve Neale (2003) pointed out that "there is a generic aspect to all instances of cultural production,
and that these instances are usually multiple, not single, in kind’.
In terms of reality TV, there are ‘numerous aspects’, ‘numerous
meanings’, and ‘numerous analytical uses’ of the genre within the
academic community.”. One of these various meanings and aspects that was explained in
Neales' reference is another reference to Richard Kilborn’s definition
of reality television as a mixture of characteristics all in one
package which is “‘real-life situations’, and also infotainment, or what Kilborn
calls reality programming: ‘the recording on the wing … of events in
the lives of individuals or groups, the attempt to stimulate such
real-life events through various forms of dramatized reconstruction
and the incorporation of this material … into an attractively packaged
television programme.’”
Audiences
Hill (2005) conducted a a
study and examined three different types of reality programs that is observational, informational, and creative, focusing on were the fact/fiction criteria. Corner (1995) exemplified this main point by
signifying and implying the different aspect of this type of genre is
the unique perception of each individualized member of the audience to
choose themselves by their own observation. Hill (2005) defined the result that “in
many ways, the classification of reality TV in relation to ‘reality’ is
connected with audience understanding of the performance of
non-professional actors in the programs, and the ways ‘real people’ play
up to the cameras.”
It can be summarised that Hill (2005) defined reality TV as a genre that has
dramatically transformed into this multi-industry corporation that has
given birth to sub forms of television programs, that are in constant
evolve/devolvement with no end in sight; but in the end, the common
unifying element is up to the viewer to decide on what is
factual/reality TV, based on this reoccurring idea of 'fact/fiction continuum' that the audience bases their belief on.
References
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.
R. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.
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